This Massive Chicken Parm Pizza Is the Ultimate Italian Comfort Dish

Thrillist

If you’ve ever felt the desire to eat a 14-inch slab of chicken Parm with your hands, NYC’s Quality Italian has precisely the entree for you. The Italian-American eatery in Midtown is famous for its chicken Parm pizza -- which comes with a crust made entirely of fried chicken. “Pizza is the ultimate comfort food” says Quality Italian Chef Angie Rito, “and so is chicken Parm -- and we’ve kind of merged the two.” By way of Italian eats, the hefty two-fold dish leaves little to be desired.

Rito and her husband, both from Italian-American families, originally intended the pizza look-alike as a chicken parm for two, until they came upon the dual dish. The chicken Parm pizza quickly became one of Quality Italian’s top sellers. On a standard night, the kitchen will serve up to 80 “pies” -- though it’s not hard to imagine why sauce-and-cheese-topped chicken cutlet is an overwhelming crowd pleaser. “It’s more fun to eat than your everyday chicken Parm,” Rito says.

To prepare the enormous dish, the restaurant begins by seasoning ground chicken, flattening it into a pancake, and coating the disc in egg wash and Italian bread crumbs. It’s then deep-fried until it reaches the perfect gradient of golden-brown, topped with tomato sauce and copious amounts of cheese, and then baked in a standard pizza oven until the cheese-blend is fully melted. Once the pies arrive at their designated tables, hungry customers can top their chicken Parm pizzas with anything from house-made Italian spice blends to fresh, chili-infused honey.

Check out the video above to find out more about how the chicken Parm pizza comes together.

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Eliza Dumais believes that chicken probably represents the future in gluten-alternatives. Follow her @elizadumais.